“I would like there to be no perception at all that Family Court orders, when issued, can be negotiated, avoided or informally modified,” Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier said yesterday.
…

“The Care of Children Act does much to strengthen our court’s powers, making it clear that our role has authority and that the orders we make are not to be flouted,” he said.

But many litigants still lacked confidence in the court and did not see its orders as requiring compliance, he said.

JohnP’ s comments: Now that it is no longer able to operate in secret, the NZ Family Court is being forced to undergo a rapid image make-over. Principal Judge Peter Boshier has realised that allowing judges to continue making decisions on the basis of “second-hand, unoriginal and sometimes questionably sourced material” is not a good look, as is tolerating “embarrassing lapses and delays” on behalf of court professionals, and blatant flouting of Court Orders by some parents.

Many of Judge Boshier’s suggested reforms are on the right track, but it will take a lot more that a change of costume and protocols to rebuild public confidence in the court. For a start, an acknowledgement that thousands of families devastated by the court’s past disgraceful performance deserve to have their cases reviewed. And how about making public statistics on custody awards by gender which will demonstrate unequivocally how much institutional bias against fathers still exists?

2 Responses to “Image make-over for Family Court”

Yes, absolutely on the button John P.
The sooner the FC’s shameful performance (past and present) is fully exposed and accountable to the general public the better IMO.
What I fear may eventually happen is that a ‘commission’ will be set up to ‘look into improving’ the FC. And that it will be stacked with political cronies who ultimately issue a limp report to Govt.
Those of us who live with the daily grief of FC facilitated parental alienation will have looooooooooooooooooooooong memories though.
They cannot make us forget our children, our deep abiding love for our children, and that we were and are good fathers.

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